Cages by David Mark (reading fiction TXT) 📗

QUESTIONS ASKED IN COMMONS AFTER CHILD KILLER MURDERED

By Press Association reporter Grace Hammond

March 13, 2018

POLICE have launched a murder enquiry after child killer Keith Van de Sande was found stabbed to death in woodland in East Yorkshire.

Van de Sande, 48, served 17 years in prison before his release on license last year. Unbeknownst to nearby residents, he had been living in a small cottage property near picturesque Hutton Cranswick.

Ramblers yesterday discovered his body in the thicket of trees near the village of Hutton. It is not yet known how long the body had been there.

The brewery rep was convicted in 2001 for suffocating 12-year-old Catriona Flynn, after she rebuffed his advances and threatened to tell her mother, with whom married Van de Sande was having an affair. Her body was later found in the cellar of the pub where she lived with her mother.

Questions are now being asked in parliament about the security and welfare of prisoners released on license. Van de Sande’s death is the third high profile murder of a convicted sex offender within the past 18 months, following the unsolved slayings of Carl Kennedy, 50, and Fergus McVeigh, 68, who were both members of the same paedophile ring and jailed in 1998 for the murder of 11-year-old Thomas Laing in Dumfries, Scotland, three years before. Kennedy’s flat in Stockport was deliberately set ablaze, while McVeigh, released two years sooner than his accomplice, was beaten to death at his mother’s graveside: a cemetery in Consett, County Durham.

Police have warned the public that violence against convicted sex offenders will be treated exactly the same as any other crime, and warned those who applaud the idea of vigilante justice to pause before inciting further violence.

The mother of Catriona Flynn released a statement through the family solicitor last night, saying: ‘I do not believe in the death penalty but I was disgusted to learn that the killer of my child was walking around, living his life, while my darling daughter was robbed of her chance to become all the things I know she would have become. Keith Van de Sande was a vile, manipulative man who propositioned my child then killed her so she wouldn’t tell. When he was arrested, police found 30,000 indecent images on his computer. He had us all fooled. I won’t mourn.’

A spokeswoman for CXO, an organization set up to help care for ex-offenders, said that there were real concerns among their members that vigilante action was being tolerated by the authorities.

A spokeswoman said: ‘These men all served their time and were released having completed their sentence. Their locations and identities were meant to be protected but there is a real fear that somebody in authority is leaking that information, and I believe we will see more incidents like these if the authorities cannot do more to guarantee the safety of those released back into society with little or no support network around them.’

Walker Denise Middleton, of Brough, told this newspaper: ‘It seemed so unreal. We saw this training shoe sticking out of a thicket of thorns, and then my friend was saying that she thought there might be a body. Next thing we were looking at this man who had been absolutely savaged. It sounds silly, but I thought he’d been got by a wild animal. He looked like he’d been attacked by a bear.’

EIGHTEEN

DC Neilsen isn’t the sort to let his emotions show, but the effort of talking to Bob Roberts is making him feel as though somebody is squeezing his throat with forefinger and thumb. There’s a haziness to his vision. He knows he won’t cry – he’s been a detective long enough to have learned how to hold back even the most insistent of tears – but he knows that when he gets back to the car he will sit quietly for a very long time.

They’re sitting in the boxy little kitchen of Roberts’ flat, just off the marketplace in the attractive Lincolnshire market town of Caistor. The strip light on the ceiling gives off an unforgiving light, illuminating a dismal space: stained carpet and damp-mottled walls. It’s scantily furnished. Neilsen sits on a white plastic patio chair and Roberts is sitting on an upturned crate: the logo for Hull Breweries seared into the side. Some of the woodchip has been scraped off on the bare wall, revealing a floral print beneath, but whoever began the decorations clearly lost interest before making progress. There are dirty pots stacked in the sink and on the drainer and bin liners full of takeaway parcels and empty bottles are piled up in a shimmering black mountain by the door. There’s a calendar from the Chinese takeaway pinned to the wall: the cover page showing November 2017.

‘I wish you’d met her,’ says Bob, in the raspy voice of somebody who had spent months not letting themselves cry. ‘I wish he’d known her too. Not the girl he killed – the soul he took …’

Neilsen fights the urge to put his hand on Bob’s arm. He doubts the old man would appreciate the gesture. He’s too brittle to be touched.

‘You’re OK, are you, Bob?’ asks Neilsen, wishing he knew the right combination of words to make some kind of difference. ‘People stop by? You’re on top of the bills and stuff?’

Bob raises his head. He’s been staring at the grooves in the coarse wood of the kitchen table. Considers Neilsen with eyes that have bathed in tears since the day his only daughter walked out the door. ‘Bills and stuff? Yeah, I think so. Don’t take much notice, really. Anybody wants to come cut me off they can do what they like. I just need a candle to read by. Bugger ’em.’

Neilsen gives a smile, grateful that Bob is trying so hard on his behalf. He knows the old boy wants to have a drink. He reeks of strong cider but can only afford to have two pints in the